The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 1884.

Timaru Herald, Volume XL, Issue 2949, 6 March 1884, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 1884.

| Aktkb all the reports o): the failure of ki \ tho Panama Canal scheme, it ia interesting 1.0 notice how the great fact of its tl encC'?SM is steadily gaining ground " throughout the -.vorld. The difficulties ul at the outset were no doubt enormous, c ' and the expensed were very heavy. But al the same may be obsorvud of almost " every great engineering enterprise in a a tropicul climate. A terrible instance c is the railway from Aspinwall to tl Panama, of which it is said that the v laying of every sleeper cost the life d of an Irish laborer. Yet the w Panama railway is a complete success. B M. de Lesseps did not make light of the P obstacles he would have to contend C with in executing the Panama Canal. r Oil the contrary, he fully realised their '' magnitude. But he made provision k accordingly. At first the progress of * the scheme was very Blow, and those " who were interested in opposing or v delaying it, spread all sorts of false c rumors regarding it. They made the a woißt of everything, and even went the 3 length of declaring that no pro- ' gress was being made, that the * works had been practically aban- '• doneel, and that the whole affair * was a fraud. Nothing in M. de £ Lessens* very remarkable career has • proved the true grit he is made ' of, more strongly than the total iu- ' difference he displayed to all these 1 malicious attacks. Having secured the amount of money which he estimated ( the canal would cost, he laid his plans ' for excavating it, put them into opera- ' tion, and then never troubled himself ' about the matter further. He felt that ' he was thoroughly to be trusted, and if «th>3 world did not choose to trust him, so much the worse for the world. Everything is turning; out now, precisely as he anticipated. The early difficulties of the scheme have been surmounted, and nobody any longer questions its feasibility. The very date at which it is to be open for traffic, is now considered to be approximately fixed ; and the more far-seeing among Governments and mercantile men are already nuking their arrangements to suit the changes that will ther. come about. The Home News of the 18th January, makes the following suggestive remarks on this subject : — " Now that the completion of the Panama Canal has been brought within measureable distance, it is time to consider what changes will be brought about by tt.e opening of the ntiwroute. Nc doubt a great development oil the commerce of the two American continents will follow speedily. The nations nearent the isthmus will be first affected, and we may look for a great increase in the trade of Peru, Chili, Venezuela, and othe.- South American States. In the satae way the West Indian Islands will all be greatly benefited, our own colonies more especially, and it is mores than probable that one of them, Jamaica, which has so long lain torpid, will spring in;o new commercial life. That it is expected to become a centreof traffic.and therefore of strategic importance, in proved by the intention of our Government to strengthen its fortifications. But it is to fiir-off communities that the new canal will offer peculiar advantages. Australia and the Antipodes generally will be brought nearer England by several days. The new route will therefore be adopted for all passenger traffic at once. Trade will also follow along the same line. Over and above the saving of time there will bo the positive boon to mariners of escaping Cape Horn. The produce of Cbina and Japan will also take the same route, and ten years hence the Panama Canal will probably be as crowded with dhipping as that of Suez is now." The Home Neivs omits to notice one thing. Of all the countries in the world that will be affected by the opening of the Panama Canal, New Zealand will be the greatest gainer. It will lie in the direct line between Europe and America and Australia, and will be the first to receive the influx of population and wealth which will assuredly set in towards Australasia an soon as this great ocnan highway becomes an accomplished fact. The immediate result of M. do Lesseps' crowning exploit, we are convinced, will be to aiake New Zealand the most important country in this quarter of the globe. «■ Tke trio of Ministers who wenb north the other day to settle matters at Rotorua, do not appear to have had a very pleasant time of it. There are several questions which loudly call for settlement up there; and it is hard to say which o): them gave the Ministers most trouble, or ia connection with which they incurred most unpopularity. One of the moßt awkward of these questions is that of the financial basis on which the Tbames Valloy and Rotorua Railway is to be constructed. The actual point at issue is the terms on which land now belonging to the natives is to be ceded, by way of an endowment for the railway. The view of the Government, as far as wo can understand this complicated affair, is that tho natives ought to give the land for nothing, in consideration of the advantages that they would gain by the construction o£ tho railway. The natives, on. the other hand, with a characteristic repugnance to giving anything for nothing, decline to see the merits of this proposal. They are ready to sell theii land for due consideration ; but noli to give it, if they know it. Tho Thames Valley and Ilotoruu Railway Company, on their ■ part, have proposed a tertium quid. They have, in fact, given the ™ i natives their choice of three proposals, {viz.: — (1) That the natives give them |an endowment a certain amount of u _ | land ; (2) that the natives give them a greater amount of land, which they — would sell in the English market, and the proceeds to bo equally divided between the nativcH and tho company ; \ and (3) that tho natives take eharea in the company, paying for them in land, or The second of theso proposals i8 thoroughly to tho taste of the Maoris, "\. and they readily acceded to it. But at th this stage tho Government stopped in and made objections to the rompany xt dealing directly whh the nativus. The negotiations, therefore, came to nothing, and it was understood that the Govern- 1

ment would themselves come to some arrangement with the natives. Wbnt chance there is of any satisfactory agreement being arrived at, may be judged from a lengthy report in the Bay of Plenty Times, of an interview between Mr Bryce and Mr Rolleston on the one side, and a deputation of natives on the other. The deputation consisted of six chiefs of Ngatiterorooterangi, a hajia of the tribe Ngatiwbakane, and the interview took place at the Courthouse at Ohineruutu on the 21st of February. "Mr "W. Rogers," whom we take to be a halfcaste or a jiaheha-Maori, was chosen spokesman of the deputation, and opened the Jeorero by giving a brief and sufficiently lucid history of the affair up to that time. He concluded by informing the Ministers that the natives fully recognised tLu advantages to be derived from the introduction of the railway, and that they were prepared to accede to the second pi - oposal of the Railway Company or to sell the land direct to the Government. To this apparently reasonable offer, Mr Bryce is reported to have replied as follows : — " Had I known this was the subject you wished to speak to us about, I should never have consented to meet you. We wanted from you assistance in the way of endowment, and you come here with a proposal to sell your land, and this you call assistance. Let me tell you that assistance is one thing, and selling the land another ; they are two distinct and different matters. As I said before, had I known this to be your subject I would not have met you." The report goes on to state that " This austere man then sat down, and was about abruptly leaving the room, when Mr Rogers again spoke." Mr Rogers, who seems to be a person of some strength of character, showed himself quite able to hold his own on behalf of Ngatiterorooterangi. He stoutly contended that selling land and applying half the proceeds to the railway, was decidedly the same thing as giving assistance to the railway; and further, that selling land at a low price to the Government, which the Government would resell at a much higher price, was also a very practical method of assisting them in furthering the railway scheme. Towards the end of his remarks Mr Rogers dropped the argumentative tone and became unmistakeably sarcastic. This was intended to bring Mr Bryce to a sense of the courtesy due to a deputation of chiefs of so influential a hapu as Ngatiterorooterangi ; but it had quite the opposite effect. Mr Bryce, we learn from the report now j'nmped on his feet, looking daggers. He said

— " You (Mr Rogers) don't know what you are speaking about, and although I have no desire to discuss the matter further with you, I will, however, only say a few words. The principle of sharing the proceeds of the sale of lands that you mentioned is one I do not approve of. You cannot see the difficulties and troubles in such an arrangement, and, therefore, I say, there is no assistance in it; as to selling the land direct to us we have nothing to do with that. You must apply to the proper officers if you wish, to sell your land, and neither in this is there assistance." Upon this, Mr Rogers became more sarcastic than ever. He said if he did not know what he was talking about, neither did the Thames Valley and Rotorua Railway Company, -who had made precisely the same proposal to the natives that he had made to the Government. But, of course, whatever Mr Bryce said must be right, because Mr Bryce was such a superior man, — in fact, an infallible man ! This was the climax. " A quiet smile broke over the countenance of Mr Rolleston as Mr Rogers uttered this cutting irony ; but Mr Bryce looked as though he could have swallowed up (metaphorically speaking) the whole deputation, Mr Rogers especially. The meeting then abruptly broke up, the august Hon. John Bryce precipitously (sic) leaving the room." The report mentions further that Mr Rolleston never spoke a word during the whole conference, but left everything to Mr Bryce, whose conduct was most unaccountable. " Such stubbornness and stupidity in a Minister of the Crown is indeed astonishing, and well may a late dignitary of the Native Lands Court term him the ' beetle-browed brute Bryce. ' " Weneedhardlyexplainthatthia report comes from a quarter that is distinctly hostile to the Government. It evidently conveys, in short, the sentiments of those who are interested in the sale of the native lands to the Company or the Government. It must, therefore, be received with more than an ordinary grain of salt. Our own conviction is that whatever decision Mr Bryce may have come to concerning the matters in dispute, he did what he conscientiously beliered to be the best for the public welfare. He certainly has not always the most conciliatory manner. He habitually eschews soft soap. He has none of Mr Sheeban's inimitable faculty of saying the thing that is not, without a blush or a quiver, in order to make things pleasant for the moment. The Ohineoiutu reporter hit the bull's eye when he called him "an austere man." But for all that, Mr Bryce is the last man in the world whom we should charge with mere stupid stubbornness, aud we cannot help thinking that he had sufficient reasons for the stand he took on this occasion. As for Mr Rolleston, we cannot too much admire his golden silence. We can picture hina exactly, aahesat there lookingunutterably dismal, thesolemnity of his claßaic physiognomy only illumined by that " quiet smile " which Mr Rogers' cutting irony upon his colleague, drew from the inner depths of his political consciousness. What in the name of goodness he went there at all for, is a mystery. The whole account of the interview, evidently prejudiced as it is, gives a sad impression of the relations subsisting between the Government and those with whom they have to conduct public business •at Rotorua. Tilings in that part of the colony appear to be in a complete state of deadlock, and, justly or unjustly, the Ministers are Biire to be blamed for it.

Coubsihg. — The annual general meeting of the members of the Gcraldine County Coursing Club will be held at the Bush Hotel, Geraldine, on Saturday ne::t at 7.30 p.m., to elect members of Committee and other business.

Boakd or Education.— The ordinary monthly meet.ing of the Board of Education will be held to-day. Tho result of the Committees' election of three members jetiriug by rotation will be declared to-dav.

Acclimatisation Society/. — A special meeting of the South Canterbury Acclimatisation Society is to be held at Mr James Granger'ii ofllee at eleven o'clock this morning, principally to fix the opening and closing dates of the ensuing shooting season.

The Salvation Amnr and Maohis. — Tho Auckland papers notice that great interest is taken in the proceedings of the Salvation Atmy in Auckland. On Sunday week no less than sixteen Maoris were seen kneeling at the "Penitent form."

A Fisn Cosir-ANY foe Auckland. — An attempt is being made to float a company in Auckland to catch and euro fish, and to culti-

vate oysters. It is proposed to take up a large "quantity of Stewart's Island oysters, and to form oyster-beds, to carry on an industry which' has been to expensive and lucrative- in Southern Brittany.

Levels Licensing Committee. — A quarterly meeting of the Licensing Committee for the Levels District was held it the Timaru Courthouse vesterdav. Present — Mr E.Acton

(Chairman) .' Messrs *J. Hill, E. G. Kerr, and J. Bishop. There were no applications to be dealt with. The police report on the licensed houses in the district wbb favorible, except as regarded the Cave Hotel, in which case a complaint was made that a disturbance had occurred there, drunkenness and fighting

having been permitted on the premises. This disturbance forming the subject c fan enquiry at the Itesident Magistrate's Coint, the Committee decided to adjourn consideration of the complaint until next meeting, warning tlie licensee to conduct his house properly in the meantime.

Small Electric Light ]?lant. — The railway companies in England, it is j-tated, are lighting tlieir trains at night by means of electricity, generated by galvanic batteries. Messrs Porter and Co., of Auckland, have just imported a light of this class. It consists of ii galvanic battery enclosed in a wooden cuse, about a foot in length tnd height, and some seven or eight inches in width. With each battery is an ineandesant lamp, estimated to burn for 2000 hours, which can be placed in any position within 100 feet of the battery, the current being conveyed through fine insulated wires. It gives a fine brilliant light, mueh superior to a gas jet, and well adapted for lighting a room or a Bhop window. The Futube or Kayvhia. — Speaking of the new government township of Kawhia. an exchange says that it seems certain that a number of years will elapse bofore Kawhia ■will assert itself, and many people believe it will mjver be much of a place, at any rate for a life-time. There is no land worth mentioning in Kowhia itself, and it is shut in on all sides by hills and ranges from the good interior country. The railway i;i not likely to give access to it, and even if it c id, trade vrith Auckland would necessitate a canal being made between the Waitcmata r.nd Manul.au. The JTgatirnaniopoto lands are almost wholly pastoral. Town sections have, however, beea purchased by numbers of good business men at high, prices, which shows that faith in its future is ield. This Railway Station. — Since the fence has been put up on the norta side of the station, people living in the northern part of Timaru tave been annoyed, when going taor from the railway station, at having to j;o a roundabout way through the entrance to the buildings, instead of reaching or leaving the platform direct as they used to do. A number of residents north of Strathallan street, not content with useless gruiabling, sent a petition to Mr Back, Traffic Manager, asiing him to allow the gates in the fence at the north end of the platform to be leEt open. To this Mr Back has forwarded the following reply: — "In reply to your note of the 28th ult., covering a petition requesting that the gate on i.he north, side of the platform at Timaru be left open, I have arranged to comply with your wishes as far as possible — tb.it is to say, the gate will be left open curing business hours, with the exception that it will be closed five minutes before the departure of each train. In making this arrangement the Kailway Department reserves to itself the right to olose this gate, either temporarily or permanently, at any time, should it be deemed expedient to do so. I would tike this opportunity to point out that the Department is compelled, for various reasor.s, to prevent trespass at stations, and I trust that the concession now made will not lead to persons trespassing in crossing the lines towards the Breakwater." It is not at all likely that the concession will lead to such trespasses, and there were surely means of pi'eventing them without making the approach to the station more difficult than it need bo.

Electric Light son Trains. —It is ' stated tliat all English railwr.ys, even those which hive been using gas, ar.j now going in collectively for electricity to light their trains by. The electricity is not, generated by motive power, but by batteries. It is both cheaper and safer, and more thoroughly undor control. In other words, the electricity will be generated by the combustion of zinc in the Hulphuric acid of the cells, instead of by the combustion of carbon in t!ie fire-box of an engine. Mabk Twain's Latest. — The following letter, deprecating the erection of a statue to Liberty and suggesting that it would be more appropriate to rear a jnor.unient to the memory of Adam, appears in tho American papers from the pen of Marl; Twain : — You know my weakness for Adam, and you knowhow I have struegled to get him a monument, and failed. Now it seems to me here is my chance. What do we care for a statue of Liberty when we get tho thing itself in its wildest sublimity ? What you want of a monument i9 to keep you in mind of something you haven't got — something you've lost. Very well ; wo haven't lost Liberty ; we're lost Adam. Another thing ; what has Liberty done for us? Nothing in particular that I know of. 'What have wo done for her? Ever} thing. We've given her a home, and a food home, too ; and if sho knows anything, she knows that it's the first time sho over struck that novelty. Sho knows that when we took her in she had only been a mere tramp for 6000 years, Biblical measure. Yes ; and we not only mended her troubles and made things soft for her permanently, but we made her respectable, and thnt she hadn't ever been before. And now, after we have poured out this Atlantic of ucniifits upon tins aged outcast, lo and behold ! wo aro asked to come forward and set up a monument to her. Go to ! Let her set up n, monument to us if sho wants to do the square thing. But suppose your statue represented her old, bent, downcast, shamefaced, with tho insults of 600 J years, imploring a crust, and an hour's rest, fo:- God's sake at our back door ! Conic, now you're shoutirig ! That's tho aspect of her which we need to be reminded of lest wo forget it ; not this proposed one, where she is hearty and well fed, and holds up her head, and flourishes her hospitable schooner of ilamc, end appears to bo inviting all the rest of tho tramps to come over. Oh, go to ! This is tho very insolenco of prosperity. But, on the other hand, look at Adan ! What have •wodonoforAdam? Nothing. What has Adam donoforus? Everything, lie gave us life, he gave mi heaven, ho gave us Jieil. These are inestimable privileges, and, rmnember, not tfno of these should we have without Adam. Well, then ho ought to hive a monument, for evolution is steadily and surely abolishing him. And bo quick about it, or otr 1 children's children will grew up in ignorance that there cvor was an Adam. With trilling alterations thin statue will do forAdim. You can turn that blanket into an ulsser without any trouble, pnrt the hair on ono side, or conceal tun sex of his head wil.h a fire helmet, and at once he's a man. Put a imrp and a halo and an olive branch in the left hand, to symbolise a part of what Adam .lid for us, and leavn tho fire-basket iiijt whero it is to symbolise tho result. My friend, the father of life and death and taxes, him bcim uegh'ctod long cno'igh Shall this infamy be allowed to go on, or shall it eI >p right here ? Is it u question of fhianco ? Behold tho enclosed (paid bank) cheques. I Uso tlem as freely as they aro f rcoly contriI bulcd. Hcarou know, I wish there wwo a

ton of them ; I would send them all to you, for mv heart is in this r.ublime work.

Woollkn Manufactures in Victoria. — -A Melbourne paper says: Tho woollen manufacture in Victoria appears to be in anything but a flourishing case just now. The Melbourne Woollen Mills are on the eve of

permanent stoppage, and the others are npparcntly travelling in the same direction. The fact, it cannot be denied, strikes a heavy blow at the principle of encouraging native industries. But the explanation is a very simple one. A foreign market for Victorian woollen manufactures could not be found, and the homo market— in tho face of strong foreign competition — was soon over-stocked. In any case, the commonest sagacity might have discerned that sooner or later the limits of production would have been reached. But

then, what to do with the machinery and the hands employed, becomes a very serious question for the proprietary. Things come, sooner or later, to a dead stop. Over-production, conpled with foreign competition, speedily strangles the nutiro industry. In which case the line of

prudential action may be very easily discerned. The exact limits of consumption ought to be first determined, and those limits ought on no account to be exceeded. In a country of comparatively small and non-pro-gressive population this problem may be very readily folved, and the penalty for neglecting to solve it is, as one sees, extinction of the industrv.

Tube iicri.osl3.— The Federal Australian says : — The existence of tuberculosis among our herds and flocks has been known to many stock-breeders for a number of years, but we think that comparatively few are aware that this terrible disease is spreading rapidly. From several good authorities we learn that tuberculosis exists more or less in (i very large proportion of iho daily stock in Victoriu, and there is good reanon for believing that it is equally prevalent in the other colonies. This is, to eay the least, a serious state of affairs, as not only is the disease fatal to a large number of slock annually, but it also has a material influence upon the health cf human beings. The disease, which must not be confounded with pleuro-pncumonia, is, when it attacks the human race, known as consumption, and, as a matter of course, the more prevalent it is amongst animals the more the health of the community will be affected by it. Various animals are predisposrd to this disease, and pre-eminently the bovine race. Sheep and horses suffer to a less extent, but swine are very prone to tuberculosis. Poultry, cats, dogs, and other domestic animals are nlso often affected by this disease-. Babbits and hares are predisposed to this complaint, and instances are on record

where they have been completely annihilated by its ravages. It has been proposed to combat the rabbit plague in that colony, which is extending rapidly, by distributing the germs of tuberculosis. Taking into consideration, however, the nature of the disease and iti liability to attack farm 6tock and also human beings, we think the proposed remedy for the rabbit nuisance is a dangerous one, and, if adopted, would be productive of more harm than good. Many of tho diseases that afflict domestic animals are analogous to maladies from which the human race nnffers. One of these complaints is tubercular consumption, with which mankind is unfortunately too familiar, and which i« prevalent in tho lower animals under the name of tuberculosis. When this disease ifl common among animals, the public health may begreatly affected, as the complaint may be transmitted to human beings in various ways. The danger to the public health by the spread of tuberculosis is a very serious matter. WEICU AltE TUB PSIMABY COLORS ? —

The accepted theory of color has at last found

a disbeliever, and from Laving been considered an immutn.blo fact it is now bettered, to be an unsound conclusion to hold that the three primary colors are red, yellow and blue. The Lite Professor Maxwell has, wi) are told, proved beyond question that thu essential primaries are red, green, and violet ; so that o. good many essays and elaborate works, as well as more numerom volumes of advice to painters, must be wronj; from the very beginning, and our experienced window-dressers must believe a great part of this scientific treatment of color to be erroneoun. The admission of green into tha notable trio is thus accounted for : — " Tho difficulties which stood in the way of an accurate determination of the primaries wera largely due to an element of confusion introduced by tho use of pigments for the purposes of experiment. People who were accustomed to mix blue paint und yellow paint toproduos green found it difficult to believe that tha green of tho spectrum was anything inons than a mixture of the blue and yellow br which it was bordered ; but an admixture of tli3 blue and yellow of the spectrum does not produce green, but white. The b'ue light being a compound of green with violet, and the yellow light being a compound of green with red, the two together afford the three primaries, which combine to form white. In the paints, on the contrary, the materiel which appears bluo absorbs and quenches red, whilo the materiiil which appears yellow absorbs and quenches violet ; so that only the green, which is common to both, is reflected unchanged to thu spectator from the mixture." SYNOPSIS OF NEW ADVERTISEMENTS. Donald Reid and Co., Dunedin-Scll valuable )>astoral leasehold property on 18th inst. Secretary to Temuka Park Board— lnvites tendiin for r jrlit to graze. K. Agnen— lnvites tenders for thatching. GcraFdine County Coursing Club-Hold annual general meeting on St.turday evening. Temuka— Blue Ribbon Mission mooting this evening. J. Uarratt. coaclibulldcr— Notifies he has again resumed business. Lett— One notice.